Table 4.
Effect of antibiotic growth promoter or probiotic supplementation in the diet on intestinal lesion scores of broiler chickens under naturally occurring necrotic enteritis challenge.1
| Treatments 2 | Small Intestine Section | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Duodenum | Jejunum | Ileum | |
| NC | 2.25 a | 1.32 a | 0.32 |
| PC | 1.77 ab | 0.85 b | 0.12 |
| Probiotic | 1.41 b | 0.86 b | 0.34 |
| SEM 3 | 0.17 | 0.14 | 0.16 |
| p-value | 0.006 | 0.040 | 0.582 |
a,b In each column, means with different letters are significantly different (p < 0.05). 1 Data represent the mean value of 12 replicate pens of 2 birds/pen. 2 Treatments include: negative control (NC): birds received a corn-soybean meal basal diet; positive control (PC): NC + virginiamycin (Stafac®20) at the level of 0.45 kg/ton from d 0–42; Probiotic: NC + PrimaLac at the level of 1.36 kg/ton in starter and grower 1 diets; 0.91 kg/ton in grower 2 and finisher diets. 3 SEM: Standard error of means.